


Drowning

by Eclissy



Category: DragonFable
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-15
Updated: 2015-09-15
Packaged: 2018-04-20 21:41:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4803236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eclissy/pseuds/Eclissy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A fire in the lungs. A light headedness. The roar of rushing blood through your ears. Falling and drowning are quite similar. OC/AdventurerXDrakath, fluff sort of, warning for some language. Sixth chapter added. This is a series of one-shots relating to the pairing. Related to Double Edged.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Drowning

He was right on her heels. By some stroke of luck, Drakath had managed catch the adventurer completely off guard. She was without her accursed dragon, weapons and even her armor; completely vulnerable. He practically flew after her through the dense woods keeping his eyes on the prize. The chase had been going on for a while now and neither of them was showing any signs of stopping. It was almost too dark to see the girl, but the sounds of her feet pounding on the ground and tearing through the bush made locating her easy. It was like she wanted him to chase her.

Just as that thought entered in mind, she suddenly disappeared and the woods became eerily silent. Slowing down to a stop, Drakath cursed under his breath.

"Ty! I know you're here! Come out and face me, or have you finally realized that you're no match for me," Drakath called out. He started to tread carefully through the darkness, watching for any sign of the peasant's figure crouching behind a tree or bush. Suddenly, a girlish giggle rang out in the silence.

"Princey don't kid yourself. Trying to jump me when I'm defenseless? I'm actually flattered that you would find me so dangerous as to attack me as I am now," Ty's voice rang out. She was talking in a snobbish manner that mocked Drakath from the shadows. Angered, Drakath turned towards the source of the voice and a branch swung directly into his face. He was flung back a few yards and bounced off a tree. Laughter echoed through the forest, this time coming from above the trees.

"You wench! I'll rip your throat out for that," Drakath snarled getting to his feet. Ty must have climbed a tree like the animal that she is. How was he going to catch her now? It was going so well too.

"I don't doubt that, but you're going to have to catch me first ," Ty laughed. Oh he'll do more than that. Once he's done with her, no one would be able to recognize the mush that used to be her face. A rock interrupted his thoughts abruptly, aimed right at his forehead. Luckily it bounced off of his forehead protector but it was soon joined by a volley of sticks and stones. Drakath began to flail about trying to hit the pieces away. Frustrated, he drew his sword and the rain of objects stopped.

"Run out have you? Then get down here and fight me coward!"

The forest had gone silent again and Drakath readied himself. No doubt Ty was going to weasel her way out or even escape. He strained to hear any signs of movements. The air was suddenly knocked out of his lungs when something hit his back, feet first. Knocked down to the ground, with Ty on his back, he felt a hand grab his hair and slam his head on the ground, pinning it.

"You're a hypocrite," Ty pouted from above him. "You find me in the middle of the night, defenseless with no one around, chase me like a serial killer from a crappy slasher story, minus the charm and ability of course, and call me a coward? Yet here we are, with you eating dirt once again." Drakath tried to throw her off, but the oaf kept a strong hold on him, preventing him from budging even an inch.

"I'm sad Princey…you're getting boring again." That did it. Mustering all of his strength, Drakath pushed himself off from the ground and felt Ty jump off of him.

"That's what I want to see! Come on, let's pick up the pace!" Ty cheered. She turned to sprint off and promptly disappeared. The sound of the wind whistling through the trees replaced Ty's airy voice. Confused, Drakath straightened himself and approached the spot where Ty used to be. He took his time moving towards it, something he'd started to do out of habit from chasing Ty. The girl would always pull something like this only to pounce out and make a fool of him once again. That was what saved him from plummeting 100 meters down into a churning ocean. Staggering back, he realized that this whole time they were running towards a cliff. It had just been too dark to notice. Even the stars were blocked out by the looming dark clouds. A smile crept onto his face. Ty probably didn't notice the cliff and fell off. It wasn't as good as smashing his fist into her annoying looking face but it was passable. The smile disappeared however once he realized that this could be another trick. Wouldn't be the first time. He tensed waiting to feel a pair of hands push him from behind or a dagger to his shoulder or a dragon breath to the face. What he got instead was the sound of a groan coming from the side of the cliff. An arm reached up from the edge and grabbed a clump of grass followed by the other. Ty was trying to pull herself up, and Drakath found the perfect opportunity to get back at her for all of the humiliation she put him through. She might even be put out of action for a while. In an instant, Drakath came over to the edge and stomped on Ty's hand eliciting a cry from her. Looking down, he saw Ty stare back completely livid. A sardonic smile graced his face and he began to laugh.

"Looks like the tables have turned peasant! Ready to beg for mercy?" Drakath taunted, digging his boot into her forearm. Ty grimaced in pain and bit her lip. Thoughts looked like they were rushing through her head at a breakneck speed. Her eyes darted around and for some reason showed no signs of anger or disbelief. Finally, she looked him in the eyes and began to stutter.

"P-prin….w-wait!" Drakath's grin only grew wider and he crouched down to get closer to her. His heart was racing in his chest and is head felt incredibly light. This was great! She'll never live this moment down.

"What was that? I can't hear you."

"St-stop this!" she managed to spit out. Drakath rolled his eyes.

"What, is the great hero afraid of getting wet?" he taunted.

"I can't swim!"

Drakath felt his heart stop.

"W-what?" he managed.

"If you don't stop, I'll fall and drown!" Drakath felt himself pale and his heart started to thud dangerously. Ty began to lose her grip.

"You're lying," he accused. No way was he believing her. It must be another trick. Drakath tried to reassure himself but the look Ty was giving him was desperate, and nothing he ever did made her look like that.

"Please! I'll drown!"

Ty's eyes were wide with fear, but there was no way he would buy into it. He would enjoy his moment of power over her instead. He attempted to muster a laugh, an insult, anything. Instead, his throat felt constricted and he felt unsure of what to do. The crashing of the waves from below seemed obscenely loud.

"Drakath!"

On an impulse, he reached out a hand to her and without warning, he felt the ground shift. It might have been because the roots of the nearby trees didn't stretch out to the cliff or woodland animals had dug tunnels in the ground making it weak. Either way, the ground gave out from below him and he felt himself begin to descend.

Everything was going in slow motion. What should have been seconds felt like agonizing minutes. He was tumbling head first down into the sea and he had lost sight of Ty. He felt like he should be screaming or yelling or something, but he was trying to look for Ty instead. Then, he felt something bump into his back and cling onto his cape. That was when everything sped up and he felt the cold sea swallow him.

* * *

 

Coming to, he found himself face down, washed up on the beach and soaking wet. The waves were gently lapping onto the shore. Well that could have gone better. Drakath tried to drag himself up from the water but he felt something weighing him down. Annoyed, he looked over his shoulder to find Ty still weakly clinging to his cape.

"What did you think you were doing," Drakath spat, pulling Ty's limp body off of himself. "You were trying to kill me weren't you? Are you listening to me?" Ty, now on her back, was unresponsive. Her black hair and clothes clung to her and she looked like she was sleeping. Drakath tried shaking her but she didn't stir. "Hey...Ty?" Still no answer. Alarmed, Drakath hauled her up out of the water onto dry sand. She felt, for lack of better words, like dead weight. Kneeling next to her, he tried to see if she was breathing. Her chest wasn't moving and she seemed unnaturally pale.

Drakath cursed under his breath. He should be happy and gloating but at the moment all he could think about was what to do, ask himself why he was so concerned and try to keep himself from throwing up. An idea came to him but he wasn't sure if he could pull it off. When he was a child, he once saw a frantic wife try to revive her drowned husband before his father's soldiers separated them. He wasn't sure of how it worked exactly but he was going to try.

Trembling, he tilted her head back and held her nose. I just need to breathe into her right? She'll wake up right? Though it felt extremely awkward, he leaned over her and closed the gap between their faces. Their lips had barely touched before he felt something slam into his ribs.

"Your face." Ty's eyes had opened and her fist had hit him square in the chest. Fucking really? Completely frozen, Drakath was trying to find a way to react. Before he could, however, Ty knocked him on his back and leapt on him. She straddled his hips and pinned his arms over his head with one hand. Furious, Drakath struggled to get free but it was no use. Despite her small frame, Ty was incredibly strong. Ty was staring down at him now; her blue eyes glowed in the darkness; her face unreadable. Then, her blank expression cracked. First into a smirk and then into a full-fledged grin.

"Were you trying to save me Prince Charming?" Drakath felt queasy with embarrassment, then rage.

"You tricked me you conniving wench! Now let me g-" Drakath was cut off by a hand clamping over his mouth.

"Yap yap yap. All you do is just go on and on. You're like one of those annoying miniature dogs and to be honest I hate dogs," Ty teased, removing her hand. "But for once, you actually did something… interesting. Maybe it's because after all of the time we've spent scrapping with each other, I've grown on you."

"Hardly!" Drakath spat. "…Sepulcher just needs you alive….that's all."

"That's bullshit and you and I both know it," Ty says, growing serious. "Besides, I think that isn't a very motivating reason for you to give me mouth-to-mouth." Drakath glowered at her words, but he couldn't deny them.

"All I want is for you to die," he growled. Ty's face became unreadable again and she let his arms go.

"Then do it," she says nonchalantly, crossing her arms. "You could choke me to death or smother me in the sand. And hey look! There's a rock over there. Try smashing my brains out with it. That would be quite a show wouldn't it?" Drakath opened his mouth, but nothing came out. Propping himself up on his elbows, he struggled to find a reason for why he wouldn't…couldn't just kill the witch already. There were a lot of reasons for why he should. Mainly because she was a threat to his destiny. Even if that wasn't the case, her mere image made him queasy with ire, her voice made his stomach do summersaults and lately, he couldn't look her in the face without getting uncomfortable.

"You know what? I'll even give you a few moments to decide," and with that, Ty slumped onto the sand next to him and closed her eyes. Drakath was left frozen and speechless. He wanted badly to say or do something to get him out of this situation. For some reason though, above all he really just wanted to grab her and yell at her for freaking him out. Recently, that's all he could ever do when they met. Lately, all of their fights were just tussling and fist fights. They hardly ever drew swords anymore. Maybe it was because they were trying to display their bravado. He doesn't deny though, that he suspects that it was an excuse to get contact with eachother. They still yelled a lot of course, and the insults were either getting very creative or very tasteless.

"I wasn't lying you know," Ty's voice broke the silence. Surprised, Drakath turned his head over to face her. "I really can't swim… but did you forget that I spilled water breathing potions into the sea?"

"You did what?" Drakath managed, confused.

"…Shit uh…well…now you know," Ty stuttered. "But that's not important. I didn't lie to you. Now that I think about it, I've never lied to you before. You're the only person I haven't lied to since I came here. I bent the truth back there, but I only wanted to see how you would react. It's…strange."

"What does that have to do with anything," Drakath mumbles, taking the information in. How can you not lie to your worst enemy. "That means you've lied to all of your misfit friends. What a terrible person you are." Ty looked away from him and up at the sky, in thought.

"You're right. I really am a bad person aren't I," she almost whispers. "I can only show be my real self to anyone who's evil. Especially you. Since you're such an evil person, I can be a complete jackass to you. I mean, almost everyone hates you so that sort of makes it justifiable…at least to the current morality wheel."

"What do you mean by almost?" Drakath asks incredulously. He knew a lot of people despised him and though there were those who supported him, they were just after power. Ty turned herself to look at him and reached out to hold his wrist. Drakath, unsure how to react, watched warily.

"I like you," Ty says. The words hit him like a hammer and he stops breathing. "I like you a lot. More than I should, really." The grip on his arm tightens and his lungs feel like bursting. He tries to muster an insult but he can't seem to bring himself to. Instead, he moves closer, reaching out his other hand to her. He stops thought, suddenly realizing what he's doing. He wanted to be angry or to try to abuse this new found weakness but all he could feel was distraught. Distraught because he thought that this couldn't be real, that he could possibly feel the same way and if the feelings were actually real, it would end in disaster for the both of them.

Sensing his hesitation, Ty rolled her eyes and quickly moved into his arms, cupping his face with her small hands. She pushed up his headband and gave him a quick and tiny kiss on the side of his forehead. Without realizing, he wraps his arms around her form and holds her for a moment that felt much too short.

A sudden gust of wind startles him and he looks up to find a dragon, Ty's dragon, landing beside them. It didn't look amused. He hears a sigh from Ty and feels her getting up. She stands and stretches for a bit then turns and looks down at him.

"Well, that was interesting. Looks like I have to run and looks like you need to get back before angsty wonders where his lackey is." Ty says, as if what had transpired between the two of them never happened at all. "I'll be seeing you around. Tomorrow even. No don't get up. I can get on my dragon just fine." She says, hopping onto her dragons back. "I'll catch you later." And with that, her dragon flew off into the sky. He watched as it disappeared into the night and let the silence settle on the landscape. It wasn't till later, when he was walking through the woods that he realized the true gravity of what had just taken place.

"Dammit…" Drakath breathed out. He felt emotionally exhausted and his footsteps were still shaky. At least he, now, knew why he felt so irritated whenever he met Ty. Now unfortunately, if...when he sees her again, instead of feeling anger or irritation, he'll drown. Strangely, he wouldn't mind if he could just drown forever. With her. And that was terrifying.


	2. Self-Control

This is probably one of the dumbest things that I've ever done. Not the dumbest ever but it's up there. It certainly isn't as dumb as climbing into that canon for the second time but I plan to make it worth it. So here I am, hanging from the bottom of a dark red balcony in a flying citadel and just barely missing a patrolling group of skeletons instead of feeding my dragon (who has much more sense than me despite being an infant) back in Popsrocket. I should have decided to bolt the moment I put that gigantic camera on the flying eyeball but instead, I had the bright idea of running down the halls and corridors of Sepulcher's castle looking for some fun. You'd think that being in a place where everything and their mother was trying to kill me would motivate me to leave as fast as I can or at least be more careful but…I am craving a meeting with the one thing in this flying dump that won't kill me…or at least can't kill me. I can hear his footsteps now.

Drakath was practically stomping down the hall obviously furious with something again. I pull myself up a tiny bit to see where he was heading and to my surprise, instead of rushing past the balcony and me, he turns abruptly and heads towards where I was dangling. At first I think he's seen me and is ready to push me off and call me a bitch but he stops just in front of where I was hanging and slams his hands on to the railing. He was shaking with anger as he looked out into the horizon and muttered something that I couldn't quite hear.

I had to struggle to keep myself from laughing. This was just too good of a chance to give up.

Careful not to make a sound, I shimmy over a bit and pull myself up and over the balcony. Drakath was so absorbed in his thoughts that he didn't notice me at all. Geez Princey, that's dangerous. We're going to have to fix that later.

Stepping lightly and quietly, I move behind him and slowly wrap my arms around his waist, pulling myself up against his back. He relaxes almost immediately.

"You seem irritated. Was it something that walking bag of rotting flesh said again?" I ask softly, resting my head on his back. It's very comfortable like this.

"Hmm? Well of course. That bastard's days are numbered. When I finally make Sepulcher fall to his knees, I'll…" he trails off, becoming rigid once more. It takes him a few seconds to realize what was going on before spinning around in alarm. I let go of him before he does and take few steps back to give him some space to freak out.

"What the…?" he blurts out, staring at me as I cross my arms. The smirk that I make is probably going to piss him off. His mouth opens and closes as he tries to figure out what to say. "How...Ty, what are you doing here?" He demands, stepping towards me.

"Well if you really must know, I got fired out of a canon to get here," I sigh, grimacing as I remember the ordeal. "As for why, isn't it obvious?" I move next to him to lean back on the balcony of the railing and smile slyly. I love it when he's angry; he's just too cute.

"Are you fucking insane?" He looks down both ends of the hall to check if we were alone. Once he was sure that no one was around, he steps in front of me and grabs me by the collar roughly. My expression doesn't change and the smile stays plastered on my face as I stare into his wonderfully dark green eyes. He's probably having a heart attack "You can't be here."

"What? I'm not allowed to visit my beau?" The moment the word "beau" escapes from my lips, he drops me and turns away.

"I am not your…whatever you just called me and it's not…"

"It's not what? I'm listening," I say, pushing myself up to sit on the rail of the balcony. He turns suddenly to face me again.

"Tell me what you're doing here, really. There's no way you'd risk coming here without purpose."

"And you aren't a good reason?" I ask, holding back a giggle when I notice a light blush creeping into his face. "What if I'm just miffed because I haven't seen my green eyed princess in days because the evil overlord is keeping him too busy? Oh don't get angry, I was just joking with ya Princey." I grin at his indignation.

"Stop calling me that!"

"Whatever you say  _Drakath_ ," I pronounce his name slowly, letting both syllables roll off of my tongue. The look on his face was beyond priceless. It only lasted a second before his scowl returned and he looked down at a random spot on the floor.

"Just leave," he says. "If you're not going to tell me anything important…then just go. I'm not getting killed here because of you." I let his words linger in the air of a moment before I breathe out, exasperated.

"Well, if you want me to…then I'll go. See you later," I sigh before letting myself fall backwards into a free-fall. Two hands shoot out and grab both of my wrists before I could and I'm suddenly face to face with Drakath yet again.

"What do you think you're doing?" he demands. His hands were shaking. "Do you want to die?"

"You said you wanted me to leave so I'm taking the fastest route," I answer him, gently prying his hands off of my wrists. "So now if you excuse me," I try to push myself off again but this time he grips both sides of my waist to keep me sitting on the railing. It was possible that he was too freaked out to realize that it would be a better idea to pull me off of the railing and make me stand on the floor but it wasn't like I was going anywhere. Both of his hands had an iron grip on the sides of my hips and they weren't letting me move an inch. There are going to be bruises there tomorrow…but I've done worse. Especially to him.

"…You're serious. What is wrong with you?"

"You're asking a lot of questions which you should know the answer to by now," I answer, resting a hand on his arm. I can feel his tensed muscles; muscles which were pretty weak a long time ago but a lot has changed. "You should know that a lot is wrong with me. For example, you know how impulsive I can be. I have absolutely no self-control when it comes to things like this," I continue, sliding my hand up his arm and letting my fingertips touch the side of his face. I trace his jawline with my thumb and all he can do is swallow nervously. "Particularly when it comes to you." Before he can even get some time to process what I had just said, I pull him towards me and crush my lips against his. He was so caught off guard by my kiss that he squeaks and shudders.

That's right. I made him squeak.

I smile against his lips and it prompts him to kiss back. The thing with Drakath though, and I have kissed him a few times before, is that he kisses are weak. It's like they were made by a twelve year old even if he was at least ten years older than that. I can hardly believe it but his kisses are the equivalent of a hover hand. For all of his arrogance and swagger in any other kind of situation, whether he knows it or not, he is a nervous wreck with things like this. At least he is...without some encouragement.

I bite down on his bottom lip hard enough to bruise and he pulls back fast. He looks like he wants to say something but he keeps tripping over his words between breaths.

"You still kiss like a little girl." Immediately, he yanks me forward and ferociously tries again. One arm was wrapped around my waist while the other grabbed a handful of my hair and pulled my head back for a better time, I'm the one caught by surprise and it takes me a full three seconds to stop worrying that the both of us might fall over the edge. But I do admit that this is getting much better. I manage to grin again and I don't even notice when my arms went around his neck.

"Feeling better?" I ask after pulling back to breathe. He loosened his grip just for a moment before growling and returning to tasting and caressing my mouth with his while I kiss back with just as much fervor. My stomach was doing flips.

And when it was getting good, both of us heard a footstep and we freeze.

"So Todd, are you going to get out of the shadows or what? We need to go."

Aw crap, Sepulcher's necromancers were coming. Though it was indirect, Sepulcher was interfering. Like usual, the jackass.

Drakath's eyes widen and he looks over to the source of the voice and hugs me closer if that was possible. The footsteps were approaching and there was nowhere to hide. That being said, Drakath still looks and when he couldn't find a place he looks back to me and gently pulls me down off of the railing. He clutches the hilt of his sword like he was actually going to kill these guys to hide me.

Oh shit, he is going to kill them…and that makes me feel incredibly happy.

"It was nice seeing you," I whisper to him as I grasp his arm. "I had fun. It's too bad I can't stick around but you'll get in trouble if you mess with them so I'll be seeing you." He mouths a quiet "what are talking about to me" and I give him a peck on the cheek before pulling myself right over the railing.

I think he was too shocked to shout.

As I plummet down from the sky and rip through the wind, I couldn't help but laugh with glee. My heart wasn't pounding as much here as it was while I was up there with him and not withou good reason. In about fifteen seconds I'm about to hit the ground but I'll take my time. Yix gave me a parachute anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Looking back on this chapter, I realize that the situation was really generic and could have called for any characters though Drakath's mannerisms and such were more unique to him. Not so sure about Ty but I suppose any character of her type could be injected in as well. Either way, I still like this chapter more than some of the others. Also, here are the original Author Notes:
> 
> "And then she realized that the parachute didn't work and vowed to castrate the little gnome when she got back to him. All the while Drakath was standing by balcony staring open mouthed down at his freefalling notgirlfriend and the two necromancers passed by wondering why the hell Sepulcher still keeps this idiot around.
> 
> I decided to make this on a whim and I should be working on my other story but this…right now it's five in the morning and I am not sane. I added another chapter and the scene in the first chapter won't make it into the main story and this one might. It might. I guess. What am I doing…erg.
> 
> I decided to turn this into a series of some sort that I will add to if an idea strikes. It'll just be drabbles or something and…birds start chirping around this time. I'm about to be awake for twenty four hours.
> 
> Are people okay with me writing more of these? Cause this was…I don't even know.
> 
> I really should be working on "Double Edged" but the chapters aren't exciting to write at the moment. Not yet.
> 
> Anyways, thanks for reading and I hope you liked it…or tolerated it. I mean, I get pretty irritated when someone writes characters or pairings in a way that I don't like so…the birds are getting annoying.
> 
> Review if you like because reviews are extremely appreciated. Especially critical and constructive ones. Especially them but write whatever you feel if you want to review. Nighty night now…or good morning now I suppose.
> 
> I'll get back to this later. Maybe. I probably made a lot of typos but I am really tired now. I'll fix them later I promise.
> 
> Edit: So I fixed some typos and I think that I'll put this in the other story with a different POV."


	3. Le Petit Chaperone Rouge

It was during the dead of a hot summer night that I had snuck into Drakath's tent when all the other bandits had retired to their own cots. Only a few were awake to keep watch but they weren't a challenge to get past.

Lamplight leaked from Drakath's tent and it was strange. Lately, he'd been staying up late into the night sitting at a work table that he probably stole on one of his raiding trips or something like that. He sat on a wooden chair looking over the maps and writings spread out across the desk's surface. His back was arched over and he was so engrossed in his work that he didn't notice me sneak up behind him.

I decided to leave my armor at home that night. It was too hot and the armor would have made too much noise. I even left my sword at home. I wasn't looking for that kind of fight at the moment so I just brought my belt, the red cape that I received from King Alteon after the debacle with Xan and an old book that I dug up a few days ago.

For a while, I leaned on the back of Drakath's chair and reread the thin red book. The chair creaked as I did and my shadow flickered and had grown in the lamp light.

Drakath didn't notice.

It was a recent development. Back during the times when we had just met, Drakath had always reacted nervously in my presence whether he was aware of me being near or not. He'd look over his shoulder frequently, become restless and overall very uneasy.

Nowadays, I could sneak up behind him and practically be breathing on his neck and he wouldn't be disturbed. Either his senses were dulling or subconsciously, he didn't consider me to be a direct danger anymore.

I continued reading the book. I hadn't read it in years and it was just as disturbing as I remembered it. I probably stood there and read for an hour in silence enjoying the book and Drakath's company as he scratched writing on the papers with the quill that I may have dropped into his possession long ago.

When I finished, I flipped back to the beginning again and looked up to rest my eyes. Inspecting the tent, I noticed the cot in the back corner with a pile of chests and bags of goods beside it with Drakath's purple cape thrown on top. Briefly, I wondered if he still kept his own personal belongings under his cot before thinking out loud.

"You know, it isn't good for you to stay up this late."

Drakath gasped, jumped a little in his seat and accidently scratched a sharp black line across his work as he did. He turned swiftly in his seat and finds my back. The movement ruffled my red cape slightly and I looked back over my shoulder to smirk.

When the initial shock subsided, his annoyance became apparent and his mouth twisted into a frown as his shoulders relaxed. He muttered under his breath before turning back to his writing, scowling at the bleeding dark line of ink.

"What is it now?" He sighed, crumpling up the paper and tossing it to the corner of the tent and pointedly kept from looking at me.

"I just came to see you," I pushed myself off the back of the chair. "But I'll leave since you seem busy-" A hand grabbed my wrist and gripped it tightly, keeping me from walking away.

"I didn't ask you to leave." Drakath said, voice firm but his frown was still set. His grip shook a bit though and he squeezed tighter. It was almost like he was afraid that I would shake his hand off and leave anyway.

"Well isn't that cute." I laughed softly, unable to keep my thoughts to myself.

Drakath frowned harder and drops my hand before turning back to his papers. Amused, I moved beside him and hopped on the table to sit with my legs dangling off the edge.

"Why are you here?" Drakath repeated, rubbing his eyes from exhaustion but still trying to concentrate on the wrinkled pages.

"No one was home and I wanted some company. Someone to talk to, y'know?" I picked up one of the pages on the table with a gloved hand. The writing began neat but soon dissolved into messy scrawls. Judging by Drakath's drooping eyelids and the quill tipping out of his hands, he was going to pass out any minute. My sudden intrusion woke him up for a second but he was already nodding off again.

I was so distracted by staring at him that I let the book slip off of my lap. Feeling the weight of the book disappear, I shot my arm out and grabbed it just as it slid off.

Drakath's attention shifted to the book and he raises his brow at the cover with a red hooded young girl traversing dark woods. In the back, the faint silhouette of a wolf standing on its hind legs could be seen spying on the little girl from the bushes. The title was embellished with gold crawling ivy decorations. The book itself didn't move him but when he looked back up to my expression, his eyes widened, he sat up straight in his seat and stared intently at me.

"What is it?" I asked. "I almost dropped a book. That's no reason for you to look at me like that."

Drakath crossed his arms and said nothing. He just kept staring.

"Something wrong?"

"Nothing," I replied quickly. "I just wanted someone to talk to." I shrugged. I wasn't trying anything tricky this time.

"…Why are you reading a  _children's_  book?" Drakath questioned, pointing to the book in my lap.

"I found it this morning. It's quite nostalgic for me actually. My mom used to read this to me all the time," I explained, opening the book to the first page. "It always freaked me out as a little kid. It freaked out my dad too. He'd always ask "Why would you read this to children? It's scary" and then mom would argue that it taught a good lesson."

"But it's Little Red Riding Hood." He scoffed at the words that I echoed from my dad.

"Someone wrote Little Red Riding Hood here too?" I asked, curious.

"Of course they did. It's a story telling children to beware of strangers." Drakath spoke the word "children" in a tone that other people would use to describe plague carrying rats. "The title's different." Drakath stated, noticing the different wording on the cover.

"It isn't. The language is just different. It's in a language called French. Back where I came from, my mom's home country was a place called France and she moved far away from there before meeting dad and creating me," I skim through the pages. "Mom had a big collection of fairy tales and the like. She loved reading them out loud to me and scaring my dad."

"Scaring him?" Drakath asked, lamp light flickering across his eyes. He was fully awake and attentive now. His chest rose and fell steadily and I reach out and brush an imaginary fleck of paper from his shoulder, subtly brushing my knuckles against the side of his neck. His breathing staggered then returned to normal, his expression set in stone.

"What's the version of your Little Red Riding Hood like?"

"Little girl in a red hood is sent by her mother to her grandmother's house through the woods, alone for some reason, and tells her not to talk to strangers. The dumb girl speaks to a magic talking wolf on the way and tells him where her grandmother lives. He runs ahead to the house, stuffs the grandmother in the closet before dressing up as her and waits for the girl. The girl walks in and mistakes the wolf for her grandmother either because she was stupid or because she was blind. They go through the exchange of "why are your teeth so big?" and "the better to eat you with" before the woodsmen bursts in and chases the wolf off. The end." Drakath finished and looked at me expectantly. He wasn't particularly interested in the topic but he still went along for some reason.

"That's a pretty cute and happy version," I smiled at the retelling. "I wish mom had told me that one instead."

"What was yours like?" He goes back to looking at his papers and writes something more legible on the document.

"Let me start from the beginning," I coughed to clear my throat. "Here's something clichéd:  _Once upon a time, there was a naïve little girl with dark locks of hair and eyes the color of the deep woods who wore a hood of red_." I said in a faux motherly voice.

"Yeah." Drakath sighs, resting his head on one of his hands as he keeps writing. His elbow was touching my thigh and he paid no mind.

" _Her mother had packed an assortment of breads and sweet jams into a basket to give to the young girl to deliver to her dying decrepit grandmother_ ," Drakath briefly glances over at me before continuing his writing.

" _The girl's mother knelt beside her and placed the basket into her tiny delicate hands and told her "Insidious creatures of ill repute roam the woods, dear one. Do not listen to their words even if they are as sweet as honey and raspberries. The sweetest tongue comes with the sharpest fang." The girl takes her mother's words to heart and walks down the overgrown path to her grandmother's cottage deep in the darkness of the woods_." As I spoke those words, I could hear the faint voice of my mom in my head. I could practically feel her bony hands brushing my hair.

" _On her way, the red hooded girl met a wolf. He approached her, tail swaying from side to side. "Where are you going, darling?" He asks, concern dripping from his lips as he hid his fangs._

" _I'm going to my grandma's house." The little girl replied, enrapt by his shiny dark fur._

" _It is dangerous to travel the woods," The wolf shook his head. "A pretty one like you should be careful. There are many monsters in the woods who would wish you harm."_

" _I will be safe," The girl answers, pointing into the forest. "Grandma's house isn't far. It's only a little while away down the path."_

" _Which path are you taking? The path of pins or the path of needles?"_

" _The path of pins," the girl replied, wishing to touch the wolf's soft ears._

_The wolf nodded, satisfied by her answer and trodded closer for the girl to touch his ears. "I do hope that you will get to your grandmother's house safely."_

_The girl nods, smiles and heads on her way._

" _Let us see who will get there first." The wolf watched the pale delicious legs of the girl skip down the path of pins before he began heading down the path of needles._

Drakath coughed then and nearly dropped his quill. He looked up at me again and frowned as if he didn't like where I was going with the story. I pretended that I didn't notice him watching and kept staring into space as I spoke.

_The wolf arrives at grandmother's house first._

_He breaks into the house and kills the old woman, ripping out her throat and devouring her whole. He feasts on her flesh, crunches the bones in his sharp fangs and leaves nothing but a piece of flesh and a small cup of blood._

_The wolf takes the woman's clothes and disguises himself before slipping into bed to wait for the arrival of the pretty young child._

" _Grandma." the girl calls into the open door of the cottage._

" _Dear one, come in." The wolf welcomed the little girl into the cottage._

" _Grandma, mother sent me here with bread and jam."_

" _Put them down, dear one," the wolf said. "Are you hungry, dear?"_

" _Yes I am, grandma." The girl nodded._

" _Are you thirsty, dear?"_

" _Yes I am, grandma."_

" _There is a piece of meat on the table, dear one. Cook the meat and drink the cup of red wine that I left you."_

_The little girl took the piece of meat and cooked and ate her grandmother. She took the cup of red wine and drank her grandmother's blood._

" _Aren't you tired, dear one?" the wolf asks, keeping the saliva from falling out of his mouth. "Take off your clothes and come to bed, dear one. Let me warm you."_

" _Where will I put my hood?" The girl asks._

" _Throw it on the fire. There is no need for that anymore." The wolf replied._

" _Where will I put my apron?"_

" _Throw it on the fire. There is no need for that anymore."_

_The little girl repeated the question for each article of clothing that she had and the wolf would always reply with the same answer._

_As the little girl climbs into bed, she remarked "Grandma, your eyes are so big."_

_The wolf replied "The better to see you with, dear one."_

" _Grandma, you're so hairy."_

" _The better to keep you warm with, dear one."_

" _Grandma, your arms are so big."_

" _The better to hold you close and tightly, dear one."_

" _Grandmother, your ears are so big."_

" _The better to hear you with, dear one."_

" _Grandmother, your teeth have become so sharp."_

" _The better to eat you with, dear one. Now come and lie with me."_

" _I must go outside and relieve myself," The girl says, realizing that it was not her grandmother in the bed but a monstrous and ravenous wolf._

" _Then go, dear one. But you must come back swiftly. I will tie a string of tread around your ankle so I will know where you are." The wolf ties the string tightly around the girl's ankle._

_The girl goes outside to the garden and cuts the string off with the garden shears lying on the grass beside the cut and wilting white lilacs. She ties the string to the garden fence and runs back into the woods._

" _Are you coming back soon?" The wolf called out to the garden. Hearing no reply, the wolf leaps out of the bed and follows the string to the garden. Finding that the girl had run off, the wolf gives chase and-"_

I paused, wondering what came next. Even though I had just read that damn book, I forgot the ending. Sure I've read a lot of other versions but forgetting that was really dropping the ball. I must be distracted.

"k-kkkkk..." Drakath didn't seem to be able to form proper words at that moment. He had started to become tense when the wolf had nuzzled up to the little girl and he let his jaw drop at the notion that the wolf tricked the little girls into eating her grandma. By the time the…stripping scene came, he looked positively revolted.

Drakath's an evil son of a bitch, just as I like him, and few things surprised him nowadays but the story was kinda…well even I had to admit that the story made me feel uncomfortable.

"W-well? You aren't done." Drakath said.

"I am." I hopped off of the table and walked away, arms crossed. "Would you rather the girl get caught or not? Give me your honest opinion."

Drakath watched me carefully and said nothing, sensing a change in the mood.

"I'd rather she live and be able to run away and forget. She was clever enough to realize at the near end that she was being duped and was about to get hurt. I sort of downplayed it since my memory isn't that good on this but the wolf's a charming bastard isn't he?" I commented, taking a seat on Drakath's cot. "My mom told me that this version was very old though. Many other people wrote their own adaptations and the meaning changes or becomes vague because of that. But you still get the moral of this one, right?" I asked as Drakath slowly stands up, wary.

"Be careful around those charming bastards," I tossed the book on the pile of goods by Drakath's cot and unclasped my cape. "They'll lure you in and before you know it, bam. Grandma's dead and you almost fell for the trick made by a cross-dressing predatory wolf. Life is ruined." I joked and leave the connotation of my words vague, watching Drakath walk closer to me. "Then again, most wolves don't need disguises. Their words are more than enough." I laughed and it sounded somewhat hoarse.

"What are you trying to say?" He demanded, tense and becoming angry. He was standing right in front of my knees now and his legs were touching mine. He glares at me, trying to intimidate an answer out of me even though he knows that'll never work. "Stop joking around and tell me straight."

"How would you describe me?" I gaze into his eyes levelly. "You've known me for a while now. Go ahead."

"You're infuriating, a general pest that I can't seem to be rid of and certainly not naïve. You know full well what you're doing!" He scowls and grabs my shoulders, squeezes and began shaking them. "Are you accusing me of-"

"Accusing? Oh…you must be mixing up the meaning." I said, shaking my head at his confusion. "And you forgot too. Yeah I'm infuriating, a pest you can't get rid of and not naïve but-" In a swift motion, I throw my red cape over him and yank him closer roughly and violently enough for his head to snap back. I pulled him down and whispered "-I'm charming enough to lure you here."

Though Drakath may be taller and bigger than me, he is most definitely not stronger.

I pushed him on to the cot and on to his back with ease as he struggled and protested. He grunted in pain as I pinned his arms to the cot and he futilely tries to push me off, panic in his wide green eyes.

I climbed on top of him and straddled his hips before wrapping my gloved hands around his neck to keep his head down. He grabbed my wrist in and attempted to tear them away from him but then I leaned down and pressed my lips against his.

The kiss is rough and at first, my lips feel teeth but eventually his defiance melted away and Drakath kissed back. His green eyes were squeezed shut as he winced from the pain, his chest was heaving and he trembled so much that it was driving me crazy.

I didn't want to close my eyes; I wanted to see him.

His forehead protector had become lopsided and slid down to cover one of his closed eyes as he flushed and made a needy sound at the back of his throat as I bit his lip. The pained noise he made was muffled by my mouth and I could practically hear his heart pounding in his chest.

There was no way I would hold myself back now.

His hands relaxed for a second and I grab his wrists and pin them down, gripping then hard enough to bruise. If he wanted me to get away, now there was no way he could say anything or throw me off.

He's just a weak human that could literally snap in two if I made any wrong move and frankly, being delicate isn't one of my strong points. Nor do I want it to be.

Then I felt the faint taste of iron on my tongue. Immediately, I pulled back and sat up, clamping my hands over my mouth. Blood trickled down my chin and I knew for sure it wasn't my blood. I stared down at Drakath who was wiping a red smear off of his own chin as dark bruises began to form.

"Shit." I swore before climbing off the cot. "Let me get a towel or something."

Before my foot could touch the ground, arms wrap around my waist and yank me back up.

Suddenly I was the one on my back with both of my hands pinned above my head and Drakath was staring me down. His lip was still bleeding slightly and a drop fell on my neck. We were both tangled in my cape and Drakath was half falling off the cot.

"You weren't finished yet," He breathes hard, still breathless from before. "You aren't leaving until we're done."

"…You're serious?" I asked for reassurance, heart fluttering.

"Do you think I'm a child?" Drakath asked, irritated as his eyes narrowed at me.

"Why don't you show me?" I smiled wryly, trying to keep cool and my voice steady. My breath hitched as he leaned his head down close enough to let our foreheads touch and I bit my lip as Drakath grinned, ready to return the favor.

Then the smile disappeared and I heard a snapping noise. Something cracked and the cot tipped over, making Drakath and I fall into a tangle of red and white cloth on the cool ground.

Drakath landed on his back, head bouncing on the ground, and I landed on his stomach, knocking the air out of his lungs.

"Ouch, son of a bitch!" he swore, strained. He coughed and shoved me off of him when I started laughing.

"Nice going," I stuttered in between a giggle as I lay on my back. "Haha, smooth. That was smooth. I guess the cot couldn't handle your fat ass anymore." I joked as Drakath clutched his stomach.

"You mean yours," He snapped back, back to scowling again. "Damn it, you probably fucking broke one of my ribs, you crazy bitch."

"Quit your whining already," I sat up and slapped his back. "If someone like me was heavy enough to break your ribs, you could probably get your ass handed to you by a ten year old. Or maybe it's happened already and I just haven't found out yet. It's highly possible if it's you."

"I fucking hate you." He growled, rubbing the back of his head.

"Keep telling yourself that." I said before getting up on my knees and giving him a small peck on his neck.

"Shut up." He replied and turned his head away as he blushed profusely, rubbing the back of his head as he did.

"But anyways-" I pulled the broken cot over and level it on the ground. "-I'm tired now so you can get back to your work or whatever," I grabbed my cape and the cot's sheets and tugged them over me. "I won't distract you anymore so carry on." I waved at him as he sat there stunned and stuttering before I lay my head down and closed my eyes.

"But-"

"If you haven't noticed, the moment's passed you by. Get a stronger cot next time."

In all honesty, I really was tired. When Drakath tried shaking me to get me up again, I was already half asleep. Before I completely fell into dreamland, I heard Drakath swear again.

This time it was at himself.

…

"Why aren't you sleeping?" I groaned groggily, rubbing my eyes. It probably hadn't been even an hour before I felt movement below me and woke up.

I was still on the cot but Drakath had decided to lie down with me too. His arm was wrapped around my shoulder as my head rested on his shoulder. He was reading my book in the lamplight, inspecting one of the pictures.

"No wonder you're such a freak." He commented, looking at the page where the wolf ripped the old lady apart. The picture only showed shadows but it was still quite gruesome. Knowing that the strange stripping scene was coming up, he closed the book and placed it on the grassy floor.

"You just realized it now?"

"No. Of course not." He huffed, turning over to hug me closer.

"You want to answer my question now?" I prodded, yawning as I did. "You had a lot of time to think."

"…Is this supposed to be some sort of test?" He asked, sounding tired. "Euugh, fine. I'd rather the girl run away." He looked me in the eye as he answered, serious all of a sudden.

"Are you just saying that to please me?" I smirked at him but he doesn't get angry. It surprised me a bit but at the same time, I felt relieved. "Then that means that if you wanted to leave, you would right? No need to be afraid? I mean, I'm not trying to trick you or anything but-"

"Is that what this is about?" He sighed, exasperated. "And you use a children's book to go about it. A creepy one too. Damn it, Ty. What kind of a person do you think I am?"

"Someone who has the most to lose if this relationship goes south," I answered, directing my gaze downward and pressing against him. "Face it, you don't gain anything being with me and you're most likely better off on your own."

In response, he remained silent and I felt him tense again.

"After my mom would finish the story, she'd tell me that the world was filled with wolves who knew the best tricks to charm and catch their…prey I suppose. She told me I should watch out and trust no wolf. But then my dad replied "What about you? Did I fall for a wolf unaware?" It was a joke but mom got really upset after that. She wasn't angry at dad at all but she got really worried…and you already know how my parents met, right?" I asked but didn't give him time to answer before I moved on. "It wasn't like "I tricked you into eating your grandma" bad but it was…interesting to say the least. But I'm worried about you too. I'm…not the best person to be around to be honest. I guess I'm also pretty bad at reading people sometimes and maybe I'm a bit pushy," I explained, embarrassed. "I just want to make sure y'know. You aren't-"

"Ty, how old are you?" Drakath asked bluntly, rolling us over so that he was on top of me. He propped himself up with his arms so he could stare me down.

"I'm halfway to being seventeen." I replied, saying it like I was asking a question.

"How old am I?"

"Twenty-three."

"Do you see something wrong with this picture?"

"No?"

Drakath breathed in deeply and sighed before fixing me with an incredulous look and laid himself down gently on my small chest.

"You're here because I want you to be here. I know what I'm doing," He said, closing his eyes, slackening as I wrapped my arms around him. "I'm not the one wearing the red hood and you know what you're doing too."

"Since when did you become so thoughtful?" I joked but smiled in relief. "Heehee, but you know what? I remembered what happened to the wolf at the end. You want to hear?"

"Not really."

"The little girl ran and ran and ran until she stopped in front of a river. The river's flow was too strong and she would've gotten swept away had she decided to swim. Distraught, the girl thought about jumping in anyway. Before she could, however, the water fey nearby laid out a sheet of cloth to wash and she took the opportunity to run across the sheet to the other side. The wolf ran after her and tried running across the sheet as well but the water fey yanked the sheet from under his feet and that creepy wolf drowned in the river."

Drakath stayed silent at first but then he burst out laughing.

"It drowned. Of all things it could've died from, it had to be by drowning."

"Ha ha, very funny." I said, not amused.

"Where did the fairies come from? They came out of nowhere."

"It's a fairy tale. Does a woodsman bursting through the walls of the cottage and cutting out the grandma and the little girl out of the wolf's stomach unharmed sound believable? Maybe but it's a stretch. But at least…"

"What?" Drakath asked, looking up at me.

"I won't see you running away any time soon. There aren't any wolves here." I smiled again sleepily.

"Of course not." Drakath agreed before the both of us drifted off into sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is really more of the same thing over if Double Edged isn't read in between chapters and that's really not good. Still, This one is my favourite chapter of all the rest. Original Notes from when I first posted this is here:
> 
> "It's been a while. How have you been? Me? I'm still trying to get over writer's block but this one-shot came out of it so that's something at least.
> 
> As I said before, a friend of mine mentioned the thing about how Ty started to wear a red hooded cape and how it reminded her of little red riding hood. She was also the one who helped out with this story. She told me the Perrault version of the story which was originally in French and she also told me the version that she heard in a PC game that I didn't know of. I combined aspects of Perrault's version, the PC game's version (I forgot the name of the game) as told by my friend, old folk tales related to the red hood and my own embellishments. The overall message of little red riding hood varies from version to version but the one here is overtly sexual. There's a lot of symbolism in that story and the stuff I added may have some significance to the future of Double Edged (so for those of you who read DE, there's more to pick out here too).
> 
> This scene was also something I've been working on for a while now. I haven't decided if it's going to be in DE yet. There are a lot of references to DE as well so there's something for you guys.
> 
> A lot of people say that Ty seems to be the more dominant person in the relationship but I don't really think so. I find that no one wear's the pants in a good relationship. I could either mean that figuratively or literally.
> 
> I also added their ages in here. Drakath's age is speculation though but he's probably around early twenties. Age gap is somewhat large but it isn't that bad.
> 
> A good friend of mine beta'd this for me too. So if you're reading this friend, thank you very much!
> 
> That's all really. I might edit this later for errors I know I've missed (writing at one in the morning is quite hard) but other than that, thanks for reading! Reviews are very appreciated and I hope you enjoyed this segment."


	4. Just Making Sure

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some short notes here. The pairing is established and relating to that, I found Drakath a tiny bit OOC from canon but that can be attributed to the ongoing relationship putting him more at ease.

"Ty, by any chance...are you my sister?"

"Are you drunk?"

She had been lying on her stomach on the couch when I broke in through the window of her home. The sun was down now and her last visitor had just left. I was just about ready to barge in and turn them into pillow stuffing but unfortunately, after four hours of watching them talk through the window, they finally left in a hurry. Ty even had the audacity to ask them to come back soon.

As per usual, I checked her home high and low for anything that could help me. Ty neither aided nor stopped me from going in and out of her rooms, turning over her furniture and checking behind the weird paintings on the wall.

Of course there was nothing. There was nothing on the Orbs, nothing on Sepulchure, nothing on Alteon, nothing on her plan of action, just plain nothing.

Annoyed once again, I pushed over her magically regenerating expensive vase by the front door next to her suit of armor. The white and blue painstakingly painted flowery vase breaks into pieces with a loud crash but Ty doesn't even bother to come and stop me.

I think she leaves it here on purpose for me to vent.

As I stared down at the dust that used to be the ugly vase, I wondered how she managed to grab every Orb she had up to this point. Her methods were beyond me. She could somehow juggle collecting the Orbs with leading wars, protecting towns and getting home in time for the holidays without going crazy from the stress and pressure. Or maybe she was already crazy and I need to re-evaluate myself one of these days.

Perhaps there was some sort of blood ritual that the other peasants taught her to heighten her performance. If that were the case, I was going to have to ask for it soon.

But not today. I had another question in mind. A few actually. Many of them had been bothering me for a while now. They had bothered me enough to get me to sit around for an extra hour waiting for that clingy brat to leave.

When I had sat down next to her, she continued to sketch and write in one of her many detailed and disturbing notebooks, humming a nameless tune contently.

I spent a good half an hour staring at a cuckoo clock hanging on the wall in awkward silence, trying to word my question in a way that wouldn't sound strange. Failing at that, I decided to ask directly and bluntly.

Without missing a beat, the tiny hero slammed her book close, sat straight up, turned to me and asked if I was impaired. Great.

"I'm serious. Do you have full knowledge of your family? Your real family?" I grabbed her wrist and pulled her closer to me. She went rigid at my touch. That can't be good.

"Of course I do," Ty shook my hand off and scoffed. "I'm not an amnesiac but it does seem to be common among heroes. Especially in Falconreach. There's even a special amnesia clinic in town. It's next to the place that helps orphaned heroes. One in five heroes gets amnesia they say," Ty rambled, biting on her cheek as she twirled a strand of her black hair. "But not me. My memories are clear…probably. The doctor said that not everyone knows that they're missing memories and-"

"Ty!" She winced at my voice and sighed.

"I'm not your sister. We don't even look alike. Save for the same colour of hair which is strange, considering I've always had a thing for blonds." Ty mused, unabashed as she reached up to run her fingers through my hair.

I made a mental note to eliminate anyone with golden hair once I was on the throne.

Her beastly dragon would love that. There'll be a whole nest of severed blond heads large enough for his titan form and he'll never bother me again.

"Are you absolutely sure?" I pressed, letting her gloved hands slide down to frame my face. Even with the gloves, they felt warm. Despite being in this position multiple times, and in the worst of places no less, I felt my cheeks heat up and I had to look away from her idiotic and smug little smile.

"Even if I was, would that bother you?" Her chest pushed against my shoulder as she whispered huskily to me. "Would it?" She repeated herself, brushing her thumb down my jawline and I was furious at myself for almost melting into a puddle.

I opened my mouth to speak but nothing came out but a choked cough. Then, I felt her mouth turn down against my cheek and she pushed herself away.

"Holy fuck, it wouldn't bother you?" She gasped and backed herself up against the opposite end of the couch, almost falling off.

"Yes! I mean no! I mean it's not uncommon for royalty to marry within the family, you know, to keep the bloodline clean. It's not uncommon for Kings, even the best of them, to have bastards." I tried to explain myself nonchalantly, clasping my hands together nervously as her expression twisted in disgust and confusion.

"Feel lucky that I like your face enough to keep myself from turning it into a funny hat," Ty said, trying to increase the space between us. "So you think I'm either a long lost sister or a bastard and you don't mind at all. I'm surprised your father decided to dirty himself with us grimy little peasants." Ty said and I think she was using sarcasm despite it being the truth.

"It surprises me as well," I sat back, rubbing my cheek with my hand to cover my mortification. "My father wasn't perfect and considering my mother, it's not as all surprising."

"You asshat! You'll say that about your own mother?" She threw a pillow at me hard enough to knock me over.

If it was with Ty's monstrously strong arms, a thrown pillow would have the same effect as a thrown brick but my experience with flying brinks helped me endure. It was a wonder how she could do that with her thin arms. You'd expect them to be thicker than the walls of a guardian tower with that amount of strength.

"I can't believe I still wanna tap that. If your father had bastards, don't they have the same 'claim' to the throne as you? Or wait…" Ty became pale and her eyes widened in fright as some sort of realization hit her. "Did you order a massacre? You did, didn't you." Ty accused. "Oh gods, you killed babies! The castle moats ran red with baby juice!" She exclaimed, staring at me like I had just fed one to a goat.

"No, unfortunately I was too young to understand that concept," I shook my head and instead of calming her fears, Ty's expression turned resigned and she sighed heavily. She was accepting some sort of fact that filled her with an enormous amount of shame. "On the bright side, I am sure none of them know their heritage and if you really are my sister, then I am very glad that I didn't know back then." I said but despite the good intention behind my words, she was still upset.

Her glare could have reduced a regular man into fidgeting spasms.

"…I'm not your sister or sister by another mother. I know that," Ty said, crossing her arms as she furrowed her brow in irritation. "Why are you even asking me this? Why would you even think it might be true?"

"I've been hearing rumors in Sepulcher's fortress and from my men," I began slowly, edging myself towards the girl. "Normally I don't indulge myself in foolish rumors but…I just want to make sure. To be safe."

"Rumors? What kind of rumors?" Ty became thoughtful, mulling over her history. "I've been really careful about not saying anything. Now I'm curious. What does the side of evil think of me or at least what my background is? I'm assuming the notion that I might be your sister has crossed their minds?"

"Among others that worry me."

"Which are?"

"Ty…do you happen to be related to the Alteons in any way?"

"I serve them as a knight every now and then but if you mean by blood, the answer is a definitive no."

"Good," I sighed, relieved at not having to deal with the problems that would come with that shameful bloodline. "Then you won't mind if I have them executed and stick their heads on the castle walls?"

Ty remained stoic at this as she flipped through the pages of her notebook, which was possibly a good sign.

"Drakath…" Ty bit her cheek, tapping the notebook on her forehead. "One day, we're going to work something out. It's going to be a very heated conversation that will result in a body count but right now, you have other things on the mind."

"So maybe not kill all of them?" I tried to appeal to her and compromise. I assume this is how regular people work out their problems? My father just threatened my mother with a public execution and replacing her but I wouldn't ever consider saying anything like that to Ty.

It would end with me flying through the roof and besides, the mere notion of me doing that to her made my stomach and chest feel stuffy and sick. The idea of anything happening to her made me want to puke and Alteon and Sepulcher were the ones who posed the largest threats. But if Ty had some feelings or attachment to them…

"We could keep some as pets. Or maybe it wouldn't be so bad letting them live in the dungeons. I can rub their noses in my throne. I can rub their noses in you! I can't wait to see it," I rubbed my hands together in anticipation of their shocked and bloody faces. "Figuratively speaking of course. If they touch you, I will feed the usurper King his children's feet."

"Next question!" Ty shouted and my next question should have been obvious to her.

"Are you related to Sepulcher in any way?"

"That sounds absolutely ridiculous." Ty scoffed, appalled. The very idea of being even remotely related to the Doom Knight seemed to make her skin want to crawl off and jump into the nearest ocean. "Could you imagine if that was true? I'd never be able to live it down." She said, crawling over and gently pushing me on my back.

"I lose enough sleep thinking about how that smelly and stiff old corpse has you stuck in that creaky old castle. Gods, is there even a bathroom in there? How do you survive?" She asked me as she straddled my stomach and pushed my shoulders back against the cushions.

"With a minimum amount of sleep and nerves of steel. The skeletons' screeching and screaming have given me that much," I mumbled quickly, turning my head to face the back of the couch. "And will you stop doing this?"

"Stop doing what?" She smirked, knowing full well that she was turning me into a quivering wreck. I kept my hands curled into rigid fists at my sides to keep them from doing anything stupid. Of course she would notice. Humming happily, she slid her hand down my arms, pried my hands open and laced her fingers into mine. "If you want me to stop, don't say it like a question." Ty smirked down at me with half-lidded eyes as she began to close the distance between us.

"Fine," I barked and I couldn't keep it from sounding shrill. I wasn't about to look like some weak infatuated fool in front of her. It shouldn't be that easy for her! "Get off. I'm not asking."

"I shall obey, my fair liege." She chuckled at my sudden outburst, releasing my hands before pushing off to leave.

"Wait!" I pulled on her shirt and she tumbled backwards on to my chest, somehow caught by surprise by my act. Her elbow jamming itself into my sternum pushed the air out of my lungs and the back of her head slammed painfully against my chin.

"Ow, fucking shit!" Ty hissed through her teeth in pain. "Gods, make up your mind!"

I was still winded by the heavy oaf and I had to ignore my throbbing chin in favour of wrapping my arms around her waist, keeping her from escaping me.

"You didn't give me a straight answer," I dodged her question, trying to keep her from squirming out of my hold. "Are you sure you aren't related to Sepulcher? Not even a distant niece? A thrice removed cousin?"

"The answer is a firm no," Ty sighed, releasing the tension from her muscles as she lay back on me. "And even if I was related to him, don't expect me to ball tears and get on my knees to hug my 'father's' leg. I'll commit patricide then and there. I only have one father now. I don't need anymore. Besides, who would have children with him?"

"You'd be surprised." I mumbled and I could practically hear his little brat screeching from all the way back in the fortress. Even the undead could lose their hearing from listening to her demonic tantrums. That old hag must have let the brat cry as some form of passive aggressive revenge.

"The rumors about me are boring," Ty tsked, disappointed. "Aren't there any more interesting stories? Like if I collected the hearts of my enemies and fed them to Libérta to let him absorb their strength?"

"I don't doubt that," I cringed at the image. "The rumors are more along the lines of a very badly written heroic fantasies. Almost all of them are about your lineage. One popular theory names you as Alteon's daughter by my mother who was somehow the priestess in disguise who was in turn a velociraptor wearing a human costume. There are many variations but they're more or less the same."

"How the fuck does anyone around here know what a velociraptor is?" Ty laughed incredulously, almost choking herself. "You can't believe that shit…you don't right? Right?"

Keeping my mouth shut, I pinched her cheek and pulled. It felt real or maybe it was just that well made. Or magic. There's always magic.

"This isn't a mask," Ty slapped my hand away. "If I had a lizard head, I would have shown that off but instead I'm…" Her voice tapers off and I could feel her body tensing up again.

Ty became silent and eerily still. The ticking of the clock hid the sound of her breathing and I began to worry.

"Do you want to know the truth?" Ty asked, her voice sounding uncharacteristically small and fragile. I was afraid that if I moved even a tiny bit, Ty would shatter into dust.

Immediately, thousands of terrifying possibilities flew through my mind and I braced myself for the incoming revelation.

"Sure." I clutched her arms tightly, inwardly cursing at myself for letting my voice crack.

"Promise me you won't leave?" Ty asked again in the same delicate voice. I couldn't see her face because of our position but her shoulders began to shudder against my chest. She curled them inwards in some attempt to make herself look smaller.

This could be worse than I thought.

"S-sure." I stuttered. Fuck. That sounded really bad. "I-I mean…I yeah. Yup." I swallowed hard and she was sure to have felt it.

Fuck, that went even worse.

"Okay…" Ty tipped her head forward slightly. She breathed in slowly through her nose, calming herself. "The truth is…The truth is…I have always been-" Ty took in another deep breath and my grip tightened on her arms in petrified anticipation.

"I am your mother."

That was a fucking joke. That was the worst fucking joke. That was even worse than what the rumors had said about her.

I was about to toss her off and leave but then I thought to myself 'What if? I didn't see my mother after what happened. Did she escape and make a new identity for herself? With there being magic, you can't rule out the possibility. Could she possibly-'

"Mother?" I said, barely louder than her staggered breathing. She went stock still and gently laid her palm on the back of my hand.

"There's something I need to apologize for…" She began and I could feel the blood dropping from my face all the way down to my ankles. "When you were a child, I kept dropping you on your head. That's why you're dumb as fuck. You can't blame me though. I couldn't tell which end was which; there's hardly a difference between your head and your ass!"

Ty elbowed me in the stomach and escaped, laughing like a madwoman as she ran away into the hall.

"You fucking- Get back here!" I chased after her, charging into the empty corridor. The vase had fixed itself so I knocked it on to the ground again. "Ty! That wasn't fucking funny! I'm going to strangle you! I'm going to crush you!" I called down the hall. She was nowhere in sight so I back myself up towards the front door, making sure there was nowhere she could jump out of without me noticing.

"Ty! Come out!" I shouted again before my back bumped into someone who wasn't the door but had a chest as flat as one. Then I was literally swept off my feet and carried away.

"You mean come in," Ty laughed, scooping me up in her arms after coming back in the house through the front door. I kicked and struggled by her hold on me was strong. "Wow, you're heavier than before. Ha, my knees are quivering here. If you ever want to beat me in a fight, just throw yourself on me and I'll be crushed by your fat." Ty joked, giggling at my struggles.

"Let me down right now!" I tried glaring at her but that just made her smile wider. Immediately recognizing what was giving her so much enjoyment, I covered my face. "I swear, I will-" I choked on my threat. "Let me go or I'm going to-" Damn it. I couldn't say anything.

"You know I'll never let you go. Not even from my cold, dead and dried fingers." Ty teased as she skipped down the hall, spinning us around and around.

"That was the dumbest thing to come out of your mouth yet. Never say anything like that again!" I scolded her, feeling myself getting dizzy from the erratic motions.

What was she, a child?

"And would you let me go if I did have a secret as crazy as what the rumors have said about me?" Ty joked, swinging us from side to side.

"Of course not! Like I actually care about any of that!" I protested without thinking.

Ty swung too far to the right, lost her balance and threw us into the wall by accident; my words apparently striking some sort of chord with her.

Our heads bang painfully against the gaudy wall paper and we slid back down to the polished floor taking a couple of the paintings down with us.

"You clutz! And they say you're supposed to be graceful in battle." I rubbed the side of my head as I smacked a portrait off of me, finding myself sitting on top of Ty's thighs.

"Forgive me, dear prince. Your kind words had struck me dumb as has your astounding beauty." Ty articulated in a faux-aristocratic tone.

"Shut up!" I grounded out, reaching over to cover her dumb mouth. She took the chance to trap my wrists and suddenly went back to being serious.

"But I did hear you, right? You don't care who or what I am?" Ty looked up to me, waiting for my answer with carefully hidden apprehension. "I could be literally anyone or anything, done anything and it wouldn't matter?"

I scrutinized her, weighing the real meaning behind her words. So there was something she was keeping a secret and if she hadn't even told me yet, it must be important.

But does it matter to me that much?

"No. It doesn't matter at all." I shook my head and though her mouth opened to speak, she was at a loss for words.

"You didn't need to think about it for too long," Ty said after a moment of thought, sitting up. I was sitting on her lap and she looked up at me with genuine curiosity. "I'd think you'd be worried about where I came from."

"I just wanted to know so we could take the right precautions in the future." I replied, shaking my head. "It doesn't have anything to do with what I'll think about you. That won't change."

"I'm perfect," I said frankly, earning an exasperated groan from her. "That means my preferences are perfect. So it doesn't matter if you're some peasant street rat or some sort of beast. I love you so that means you're perfect no matter what."

Ty's jaw dropped open and I swear, her mouth was open wide enough for a gorillaphant to make its home in there.

Realizing her over the top reaction, Ty's hands flew up to cover her mouth and she turned her head away from me.

"Wh-what are you saying? Did you just really say that?" Ty stuttered under her hands. I almost couldn't understand her muffled words. "Since when did you think that up? Are you trying to kill me?"

"Huh?" I leaned over to face her. I could see her blush behind her fingers and I couldn't stop myself from grinning. "You are flustered." I stated as I laughed at her, thoroughly enjoying our reversed positions.

Was it a blue moon tonight? This almost never happens.

"Just shut up! How can you say that so easily?" Ty stumbled over her words, shielding herself from me.

"Really?" I teased her, turning her head back to face me. I held her jaw and neck still so she wouldn't be able to look away. She felt like she was burning up under my hands. "So you don't like what I said?"

"It was so sweet and so narcissistic at the same time that I have to go out later and punch a unicorn to feel like myself again." She grumbled, blue eyes turned down.

There was no time to savor that moment; Ty bounced back and she grabbed my collar to tug me forward. Our foreheads were touching and all I could see were her warm and clear, almost electric, blue eyes.

"But I think you should say stuff like that more often." She answered and we were close enough that talking made our lips brush against each other.

At that moment, I was very glad that I was the one sitting on her lap instead of the other way around.

We kept staring at each other as the old clock in her hall ticked away in time with our breathing.

Ty smelled like the dirt from her garden outside. The way that smell mixed with the almost overpoweringly sweet odor of the flowers stuck all over the house was awful; her scent could make a man's eyes water.

Instead, it just made me go crazy.

It was quicker than a blink but it was impossible for her to miss. I kissed the tip of her nose before bolting towards the door as fast as my shaking legs could carry me.

"Not happening, jerkface!" Ty laughed, catching me just as the tips of my fingers grazed the doorknob. She wrapped her arms around my waist and hoisted me off of my feet.

"Let me go!" I shouted but I didn't make any real effort to escape and there wasn't an ounce of urgency in my words. She couldn't see my face so I didn't need to make the effort to hide my smile either.

"No way! Not after that!" Ty giggled gleefully before carrying me back into her living room with ease, spinning us around as we went. The vase had regenerated again and Ty's motions knocked it over again. "I'll never let you go. Not ever!"

"That goes both ways." I muttered and her laughter melded with mine, echoing down the halls.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Original Notes from the original post here:
> 
> Author's Notes: A friend of mine, who helps read and edit some chapters of my work, once asked me if Drakath would still like Ty if she was a velociraptor. The question came out of nowhere and by the time that question came around, most of the planning for their relationship in DE had been finished, and it's safe to say that after all the shit I'm going to put him through, Ty being a dinosaur's not going to be much of a problem. He'd rationalize it somehow.
> 
> Also, still no backstory for Ty since it's a major plot point in Double Edged.
> 
> And most of these additions are going to be about them already being together unless I come up with something that's not going to be put in the main fic/someone asking for it.
> 
> Since we won't be seeing Drakath for a while after the Wind Orb Saga is finished, my friend asked me to write something cute and small. So I did it.
> 
> Most of the stuff that ends up here have Ty and Drakath already in a relationship. The main fic, Double Edged, spends more focus on the development of said relationship so I can't post much on that (besides the cut out chapter that was the first addition of Drowning) until those scenes have passed.
> 
> Most of the ideas came from the forums. A long time ago, there used to be a section mainly for theories and speculations. It's gone now but there'd always be a thread about the backstory of the main character.
> 
> Some were interesting and others were awful. Most had something to do with the main character (ie. You) being related to the game's bigger players like Alteon and Sepulcher. Though the main point of having a generic main character is so the player can project themselves on to the character and make up their own backstories.
> 
> So if you wanted, your character could be part velociraptor and it would all work out. "The Shadowscythe's been defeated by a slightly smarter velociraptor" actually sounds interesting.
> 
> A lot about what Drakath says is my headcannons for him. Especially considering his mother and father. In Mechquest, Kingadent Slugwrath was confirmed to be his father but there's hardly anything about him character wise. There's absolutely nothing on his mother so for all we know, Drakath might be part doormat. Putting it that way, it might not be so unbelievable.
> 
> And if you haven't noticed yet, my artist friend, Electronelle, made a picture of one of the later scenes in Double Edged. It's now the cover picture for this collection of drabble thingies and the full version can be found on our deviantart account without any explanation that I have a link to on my fanfiction profile. One of you guys found out and I was sent a message telling me that I was an incarnation of the devil. I was flattered.
> 
> These fics have also been getting popular. The views for these one-shots out do the number of views for my main fic. That means I should work harder on that, huh?
> 
> That's all really. Thanks for reading and I will get to continuing DE soon. With real life in the way, other writing projects I'm working on and editing making me rewrite and rewrite, it's a slow process but we are moving!
> 
> Goodnight/Good day and don't stay up all night on exam days to write (like I do).


	5. Unyeilding Pride

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No big romantic scenes in here. Just the introduction of children that started out as joke characters but stuck.

"Hey, Ty? What do you think of…children?" Drakath asked from his desk, peering over at Ty to check on her reaction.

She was sitting on his cot again and had looked up from her book when Drakath had asked the damning question. Ty stared back at Drakath like his skeleton had crawled out of his mouth, having enough of acting as the framework for and incompetent sorry excuse for a human being.

Ty and Drakath held the stare for what felt like hours and the bandit prince felt like he was going to explode into chunky pudding smeared on the walls of his tent.

Then, spontaneously, both burst into laughter; Ty's being an uncontrolled giggle while Drakath played awkwardly along.

"Hahaha, children are the bane of my existence. I'd rather die from choking on a chicken cow's spine," Ty became serious again, slamming her book shut. "You agree, don't you?" She asked, her expression darker than a darkness elemental lost in a pitch black night with a black tarp thrown over its head.

"Haha, stupid kids. They can all go jump into the ocean and get eaten by whales…" Drakath forced another laugh. "I hate kids. I really do. Those high ugly voices and lopsided faces. I steal from orphanages; what do you think I think about kids?...But if they were mine…ours…Then maybe they wouldn't be so bad."

"What was that?"

"Nothing…Just thinking about things." Drakath laughed again, quickly jotting down the beginning of what he hoped would be a convincing argument. How should he start? You could boost your ego with kids? That sounded like a good start. Well, it sounded like a good start to him.

What would it be like having kids anyway?

* * *

In a far far  _far_  away distant alternate universe way down the timeline from our own, through a series of impossible and strange events, three lives came to be.

"Tyler? How are you feeling today?"

"Fifty kinds of disappointed in my father," The young man looked up from his notebook with tired and dry blue eyes. He was around the age when his mother was when she had first set foot on the strange yet clichéd world of Lore and met his useless doormat of a father. It was such a shame that Tyler looked so much like him. "If my mood does get better, I'm still not going back. Didn't I ask you to tell father that I got ran over by a chicken cow and died, Uncle Ash?"

"Tyler, please," The older man sighed, rubbing his forehead. "You've been living on my couch for the past two weeks. Please go home. There are thousands of couches that you can be sleeping on back at your place. It's huge. Your dad can't search through all of them."

"But it's so nice on your couch. It even has a little indent shaped like my butt now." The boy yawned, brushing his fingers through his messy black hair. No matter what he did to it, whether it was dunking his head in a bucket of hair gel or setting the damn thing on fire, the floppy black spikes would bounce back and Aunt Alison would go "Oh you poor dear, you resemble your father. Want a drink? A heavy one? Several heavy ones?"

"And don't use the word… _dad,"_ Tyler shuddered, like the word was a slimy slug oozing out of his mouth. Gross. "It's too familiar. Look, ever since what happened to mom…"

"Don't you start!" Ash sighed, bopping Tyler on his head and making the teenager wince. "Your mom is at home making fun of your da…father for worrying so much. In fact, she's telling you to take your time and when you come back, bring a dead body for show and tell. Stop laughing, that isn't funny!"

"Sorry," Tyler chuckled into his palm to hide the sound, rolling on to his stomach on the couch. "But I don't want to go back just yet. Let me finish my draft first and then I'll think about it." Tyler flipped through his notebook, scanning each page with a careful eye.

"I don't see you writing," Ash crossed his arms and frowned at the boy. "What's even in that?"

"Poems, drawings, stories," Tyler shrugged, rolling on his back and resting his head on the arm of the couch. "Maybe a few war strategies. An assassination plans. A bunch of stuff," Tyler held the book up over his nose. "My sister isn't the only one who can make those up. It's just that mine are slightly…kinder? Kinder should be the right word for it."

Right as she was being mentioned, Tyler's younger sister edged her way down the stairs. She took her time with each gingery step but near the middle, almost lost her footing and cried out.

"Dravira!" Ash rushed to the hall and up the stairs to help the quivery young girl. She was almost as tall as her elder brother now though her willowy body's health was almost always poor.

"But, Uncle Ash," The girl coughed, reaching for her uncle's shoulder. "That isn't my name. How could you forget my name? I was named after you. I'm Ashe." The girl rasped as Ash led her down the stairs to the couch.

"Ashe, did you have a nice nap?" Her brother asked her, concerned. Ash gently sat her down on the cushion next to Tyler and the boy laid a gentle hand over his sister's. "How does your chest feel? Are you still coughing? Does it ache anywhere?"

Ashe laid her hand on her chest, slowly breathed in through her nose and blew the breath out through pursed lips.

"Only a little bit of each," She smiled shyly at her brother as she smoothed out her white nightgown. "I took my medicine so it should be okay for a little while. Where did Dravira go? I hope she isn't bored being cooped up because of the weather." Ashe coughed quietly into her shoulder before Tyler offered her his blue handkerchief.

"Thank you," Ashe dabbed cloth daintily on her thin lips as she looked out the window across from the couch. The heavy raindrops banged against the glass and that dampened Ashe's mood. "It's been raining so much, Dravira hates it. My dear sister can't play outside."

"You don't do so well when it's cold and wet either, inside or out," Tyler rubbed her back comfortingly. "Besides, she's having fun in the kitchen whipping something up. She's making something sweet, like you." Tyler playfully poked the tiny beauty mark under Ashe's lavender eye, making her giggle.

"Hey…" Ash began, regarding the siblings with confusion. "It's been a while since the other time you visited. When did you change your names? I thought you were Dravira." Ash said, glancing between the brother and sister.

"Ah..." Ashe nodded, tiny tears beginning to form on the corners of her eyes and an upset blush rose in her cheeks. Immediately, Ash knelt beside the girl and put a gentle hand on her bare knee.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to make you sad." Ash quickly apologized but the willowy girl shook her head.

"No, it's just…my father is so horrid. I don't…I can't have anything to do with him," Ashe cried into her hands, tears streaming down her pale cheeks as her long black hair fell over her shoulders. "I had to switch names with my sister. Father is a cruel monster with nothing but a black hole for a heart. The way he treats my mom is absolutely horrid. I can't stand it!"

Instantly, Ash's shoulders slumped and he had to suppress a tired groan.

"You mean the way he stuffs sweet buns into your mom's mouth when she's too lazy to get up is terrible?" Ash asked, raising a brow.

"It takes him ten minutes to get the sweet buns. He's just so slow and useless. How do you expect us to live with him?" Ashe continued to cry into her hands as Tyler comforted her.

"There there, it's alright," Tyler patted his sister's back as she sobbed. "Staying in that house is bad for your health. If you stick around my father for long enough, his uselessness might catch on to you and soon, you'll find yourself unable to open even the loosest of jar lids."

"Tyler had to carry me out. My mommy is stuck at home. Father never lets her go anywhere without him unless there's no choice." Ashe sniffled, desperately trying to wipe away her tears.

"I'm pretty sure it's the other way around. Your mom's scary when she's mad, she doesn't let anyone boss her around much less your da-father. He's the one clinging to her." Ash attempted to talk but the weeping girl ignored him.

"She's his prisoner. It's awful," Ash continued, rubbing her reddening eyelids. "We almost couldn't convince Dravira to come with us. She still loves father. I don't know why but she does. My poor dear sister, she's an angel. I have no idea why she'd-"

"Tyler! Ashe! Uncle Ash!" A short girl holding a tray of lemonade and cookies she made in the kitchen walked into the living room from the hall. She could have been a mini copy of her mother but her eyes were deep green like her beloved father's. "Look I made food for everyone to ea-"

"FOR THE LOVE OF FUCK! I'M TRYING TO FUCKING TALK!" Ashe swore, balling the soggy handkerchief and throwing it at her sister.

Dravira ducked and the handkerchief bounced off the wall behind her, promptly dissolving a hole into it.

Meanwhile, all the furniture in the living room that wasn't the couch launched into the ceiling and started to melt.

"Oops," Ashe blushed, lowering the furniture back into their places as she mended the holes with her a wave of her slender fingers. "Sorry, I got a little carried away." She apologized, clasping her hands together as she sniffled.

"What happens when you get really carried away?" Ash asked.

"The eyes go first." Ashe replied easily, leaning on her brother for support.

"Oh, your hair's all messy. Let me braid it," Tyler went to work tying up his sister's hair into her favourite waterfall braid. "Sorry about this. We get testy when we talk about father."

"Uh, should I come back later?" Dravira poked her head into the room and Ash and Tyler quickly beckon her in. Nodding happily, Dravira hopped in while she balanced the heavy tray expertly. "I put strawberries in so now it looks like there's blood floating around in the lemonade. You love that." Dravira grinned at her sister before chomping down on one of the cookies and offering another to Ashe.

With a small smile and a blush, Ashe accepted the cookie and began to nibble.

"Um, so Ashe…I mean Dravira?" Ash turned to the youngest sibling as she hopped up on the couch next to her sister. "So why did you come here with your brother and sister? You like staying with your father right?"

"I like it here, Uncle Ash. I like it here lots," Dravira smiled widely, kicking her small legs contently. "But I love daddy. He's dumb sometimes but he's still daddy and mommy loves him lots." At that, Tyler rolled his eyes and Ashe dipped her head glumly.

"My dad's a loser

Someone please be my new dad.

Anyone will do."

"Tyler, what a wonderful haiku." Ashe complimented, gently shuttering her eyes.

"But all joking aside, you know my father don't you? You know why I don't like having any mirrors in the house, right?" Tyler frowned, shame crossing his features as he reached for a glass of lemonade. It was a look that hardly ever graced his father's features, no matter what he did.

"If my father could make slavery popular again, he would," Ashe murmured, slowly nipping at her cookie as Tyler finished braiding her hair. "Father is an awful human being. The scum scrapped off the underside of the barrel. He feeds off the despair of others. And he has such an ugly name too."

"Better than grandpa," Dravira giggled. "Dinkelheim, pfffffttt. Sometimes Aunt Alison transforms into grandpa and cuts off her head to throw it on daddy's lap. Sometimes, he even cries. Daddy's so funny."

Ash had no love for the siblings' father but he couldn't help but cringe in sympathy for the man.

"Father's hurt a lot of people and he'll keep hurting people. Being associated with a man like that for the rest of my life sounds like a nightmare I haven't woke up from yet." Tyler said as he threw a knife right over Ash's head, the blade grazing the tips of his short hair. Gasping at the whiz of air, Ash fell backwards on to the hard floor.

"What was that for? Where did you even pull that out from?" Ash sat up, rubbing his head as he checked on the wall. A silver throwing knife was embedded in the wall, the tip pinning a tiny and barely visible fruit fly down.

"I always have knives on me somewhere. It helps to be prepared," Tyler shrugged just as the knife exploded. Ash's anguished scream was almost as loud as the explosion but the siblings just shrugged both off. "Before you ask, it helps to make extra sure there'd be no chance of survival. Mom told me that if I don't, it'll bite me later."

"Why would you need to know that?" Ash demanded, hyperventilating from the surprise of the explosion.

"For things. Certain things." Tyler said, plain and simply as he twirled another knife in his deft fingers.

"Look, Tyler you can't just-Wait a minute. Where'd he go?" Ash rubbed his eyes when he noticed that the spot on the couch where Tyler used to be was empty. "I was looking right at him. Where'd he go?"

"He does that to practice. Probably went to go to the toilet," Dravira said through a mouthful of cookie. "You blinked didn't you, Uncle Ash?"

"Why does he need to do that?"

"To hide from father…among other things." Ashe said, accepting a glass of lemonade from her younger sister.

"I know your father's a real piece of work but he's still your father," Ash said, crossing his legs as he dusted flakes of the wall out of his hair. "I mean, the first time I met him, he was trying to rob me and your aunt and then ran away because he was scared. Of your aunt of course, not me. The first time I heard his name, it was when my parents were talking about what a tyrant your grandfather was and how his son was shaping up to be even worse. Mind you, that was before he was nine."

"You aren't making a good argument for father," Ashe said, furrowing her brow. "Even as a child, he was a brute. I bet he drowned kittens for fun," Ashe shuddered, imagining a demonic little boy stuffing mewling kittens into a sac and dipping them into a bucket repeatedly. "M-monster!"

"Ashe, you're just making things up in your head now, aren't you?" Ash said but he couldn't completely rule the idea out. "Your mom…loves this guy for a reason. I mean, she isn't such a star model either-"

"THE FUCK ARE YOU SAYING ABOUT MY MOM?" Ashe stood, her voice booming throughout the house. It made the crack in the wall left by Tyler's exploding knife grow and spread across the ceiling until a whole chuck dislodged itself.

The chuck fell towards the sisters and their uncle, stopping just above Ashe's head.

"Whoops, be careful Ashe. Besides, uncle didn't mean it that way." Dravira chastised her sister as she stood on the back of the couch, holding up the chunk of ceiling with the tips of her fingers. A cookie was pinched between her teeth and it teetered dangerously like the chunk of the ceiling.

"Did I miss something?" Tyler asked, suddenly appearing back on the couch. He glanced up at the fallen chunk with brief curiosity before looking back down at his uncle. "You should do your laundry soon. The towels smell funny."

"M-my house!" Ash stuttered, holding the sides of his head in despair.

"Oh no, I'm so sorry," Ashe starting to tear up, converting the ceiling chunk into sparking dust before materializing another to patch up the hole in the ceiling. "I got a little carried away again."

"Why didn't you do that when you threw the furniture around?" Tyler asked, pouring himself a glass of lemonade.

"I got carried away but that doesn't mean I can't practice," Ashe replied, mending the ceiling without lifting a finger. "Humans are a bit more complicated though. But the colors they make are pretty."

"You know what? I'm close to wishing you were more like your father," Ash tsked, brushing the sparkles out of his hair. "I'm sorry to say this but your mother isn't such a star model either considering some incidents."

"Guys, I don't swear often but your father is a true power hungry bastard," Ash said and the siblings nodded in agreement. Even little Dravira nodded, fully acknowledging that her beloved daddy was honest to goodness scum. "But you know what else he is? A three star narcissist. It comes with the bastard territory."

"I still don't understand how this is supposed to get us to go home." Tyler frowned, imagining his father asking for a threesome with his mom and a full length mirror. Not that mom would say no. She'd find it funny but still…

"He loves everything about himself so that means that he loves you three even more. You and your mom are all a part of him," Ash continued even when all three of the siblings were staring at him like he just told them their father was a saint. "It's kinda hard to explain but I think since you guys are his kids, he adores you above everything else. He hates to see you sad and he freaks when you go missing. I've gotten maybe fifty thousand letters simultaneously threatening me and begging me to bring you back. All terrible, awful, disgusting, cruel, evil things aside, your father's still human-"

"I dunno, is he human?" Tyler turned to his sister.

"It got confusing after the third timeline and fifth reset." Ashe whispered back.

"He's still human and he'd do anything to make you happy," Ash went on, disregarding the pair's comments. But then again, Ash always felt like he was being watched somehow…"Anyways, if you're worried about him being himself, I'm sure he'd make an effort to hold it back. Your mom-"

"Poor mom, she's-"

"No. No no. No no no, NO!" Ash raised his hands in front of his chest, shaking his head vehemently. "Stop saying that. Your mom is happy with your father. More than happy. Let's face it, if your father was mean to your mom or any of you, she'd kick his ass into the sun. Heck, your father would kick his own ass after all that's happened."

"He's done that by accident before," Dravira laughed brightly. "I don't know how, but he has."

"I guess you have a point," Tyler conceded, lowering his head in thought. The rain had stopped for a while now and they could all hear children running out into the sun to play. "Father's never done anything wrong by us besides existing. I can't really blame it on him that I can't meet Aunt Robina…Actually, I can. That was a bad example."

"Auntie Robina gets war flashbacks when she looks at me." Dravira added, raising her hand.

"Stupid kids," Ashe glowered, leering out the clear window. "Go jump into the ocean and get eaten by whales."

"Please guys. Don't torture you father anymore," Ash begged. "He does love you."

"I suppose we shouldn't be cruel, even to a brute like father," Tyler sighed, embarrassed at his behavior. "Maybe if we talked it out more, we could understand him better."

"Tyler, he's been trying to do that for the last sixteen years," Ash said bluntly. "He has your drawings and poems framed all over the walls. There's literally no room on them for anymore but he keeps trying. Ashe, you're sick here because I don't have the right medicine for you. You're perfectly healthy at home despite how difficult it is to keep you that way because your parents work tirelessly to make you smile. And Dravira, the last person who stepped on your foot…Your father had him hung upside down from a cliff over a sea of sharks and gave him a knife to see if how long it would take to make him cut the rope himself."

"Daddy and I ate popcorn and watched. It was fun." Dravira beamed as Ash's face went pale.

"He had it coming, that bastard," Ashe nodded solemnly. "Anyone who so much as plucks a hair from the top of my little angel will be burned in the fires of hell."

"Haha…you see? Your father does love you. If his behavior bothers you so much, talk to him. He'll listen." Ash urged, trying to ignore how nervous he was becoming.

"Or…we could use that love to get close to him and rip his heart out." Ashe suggested and Tyler's eyes lit up.

"We'll end his cruelty forever!" Tyler exclaimed, taking his sister's hands in his. "Let's kill dad."

"Kill dad." Ashe repeated, joyful tears in her eyes.

"Guys, wait," Ash said as the pair rose from the couch and headed for the door. "No. Don't do it!"

"Thank you so much, Uncle Ash," The middle daughter waved to him as she and Tyler stepped out the door hand in hand. "You've cleared our worries."

"See you soon, Uncle!" Tyler waved before he closed the door.

Ash was glued to the floor, still in shock of what had just happened. Did he just help convince Tyler and Ashe to commit patricide?

"Why aren't you going to stop them?" He said, turning to Dravira as she finished the cookies. "Don't you like your dad?"

"If daddy can't defend himself against his own kids, he's not my daddy anymore," Dravira said as she rubbed her satisfied belly. "Mommy'll do something anyways. Or she'll laugh. I'd laugh. Daddy might cry again."

"I guess…Ty'll calm your brother and sister down and if she doesn't…" Ash trailed off, looking to the door. "Eh, not such a huge loss."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been quite a while so their characters and their situations have changed drastically which includes the fact that none of them mentioned the twins who did not exist at the time of writing. Here are the Original Notes at the time of the original post:
> 
> And there we have it.
> 
> I left the time and setting vague to make sure I wouldn't violate the canon of DF or DE. In DE, you will probably never see these characters with all that's happened so rest easy. Also, Ash will eventually find out and it will be a scene to behold.
> 
> Tyler was the first one that Vicky made and she said that he's the true good son. He has a strange side hobby but overall, he's a swell dude to hang out with. He likes his mom better than his dad obviously. She decided to name him Tyler to match Ty's name because she thinks that Drakath would name him that as a "loving gesture." I'm not sure if that's what would happen but Vicky got attached to it and Tyler would have changed his name anyway. He's easy to talk to, empathetic, and artsy.
> 
> Ashe was the second child who swapped her name with the third because that's how much she likes her dad. 0. Vicky had a lot of fun making her up and so did I. She's more like her dad than she thinks. She's the most vengeful and cruel of the bunch but outmatches her father in her cunning.
> 
> Dravira's the third kid who actually loves her parents equally. She didn't get much attention here since she likes her dad but out of the bunch, she's the most physically strong and has a thirst for violence. Despite that, she's a lot more level headed than the others and tends to be a mediator.
> 
> They also happened to fit into the rogue, mage, and warrior classes respectively.
> 
> There's really nothing more to say besides I hope you enjoyed it.
> 
> Review if you like and have a good one today!

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this years and years ago and honestly, I'm embarrassed by a lot of what I wrote though it was the author notes I was even more embarrassed to look at but for preservation's sake, here are the original notes:
> 
> "Holy crap holy crap. It's been so long since I've written anything. The idea came up for this when a good friend of mine asked if I was going to write romance into Double Edged. I said that I thought about it and that it would be good practice for my original stories but I didn't know who I should pair Ty up with. Then my friend said "what about the loser?" At first I thought she meant Ash but she clarified it saying "I mean the one with the naruto head band and the dorky name." And suddenly plot bunnies. This was also my first attempt at romance so if anyone manages to stumble onto this, I would love it if you gave me some pointers and constructive criticism. You can even PM me if you like. Hopefully you enjoyed this and won't beat me with words too badly. Double Edged will continue and this one shot will/might be a part of the story, just with a different POV. It's set somewhere after the wind orb saga but before the light orb saga maybe, and they do run into each other more often than in the actual canon story. So thank you for your time and goodnight. (It's 5 in the morning currently as I write this).
> 
> *Edit*: Oh my god. I've just realized what I've done...I freaking made a shipping story about Drakath (one of the most hated NPCs on the forums) and the adventurer (who can be insert your name here). Now I'm nervous. How did I go through this without fear? My god...did I make Drakath OOC? Is my OC a mary sue? I'm freaking out here."


End file.
